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| _scroll, oppose, though, bisect, assure, squawk, brush with success.Image(s) from the Internet.
The opening poem contains all the words (or variations of them) from today's Jumble.
Comments are welcomed! And couching them in Poetry is definitely NOT required.
Do not explicitly reveal any of the actual answer words until after closing time, but embedding them surreptitiously in comment sentences is encouraged.
21 comments:
Ian the Wizard lived in comfort in his shire.
Outsiders needing weather sought him out to hire.
He would travel far to cure a killing drought,
Or assure sunshine for a festival turn out.
There was seldom opposition to weather wizardry;
When there was he could bisect a cloud with symmetry,
To only rain on fields, yet not on market streets.
Keep the burghers happy, they wouldn't squawk or bleat!
Sometimes he'd use a scroll of arcane runic spells,
To assure that underground, rain replenished wells.
And using his weather wand as a pointing device,
Directed lightning if he wasn't paid his price!
Ian had a brush with law, though, in his shire.
Successful as he was, unlawful magic was under fire!
He gave in to temptation, his yard was rained on.
He was let off (but must water the judge's lawn)!
(Ian was introduced 12/22/2019.)
Owen, you know, when you supply the letters, one needn't even unscramble the jumbled words. I didn't notice the letters you provided, though, til I had unscrambled them.
Of course, it would be necessary to have them in order to write a poem incorporating them all. Lucky for me I don't write poems!
I rather like the pun in this solution.
I'm going to be like Sandy today--a non-writer of poems!
It has been a couple of weeks since I took my day off, so that's what I'm doing now.
Happy hinting, everybody, whether in verse or prose!
I will look in to see how you fare.
While benched for a day, I still really care.
~ OMK
On the easel is Café Terrace at Night, at the foot is Starry Night, and in the buyer's hands is The Red Vineyards near Arles. Red Vineyard is believed to be the only painting that van Gogh sold during his lifetime. It's a pity the colorist didn't put a bit of color to them.
Sandy, yes, I had to go out of my way the add the jumbled solution letters. I believe that is in keeping with the "hints" part of our mandate. And Sunday is the only day I can do it.
Terrific poem, Owen--great to see all the Jumble words and solution worked into the lines so successfully!
"Elections"
Paul had to scroll through the poll
to see if his election they stole.
He chose to oppose his foes
during periods both high and low,
though he mainly wanted to know
if they deserved a political blow.
If their issues they bisect
and on their conflicts reflect,
would this help with their base to connect,
to be the candidate they'd elect?
Campaigns produce much pressure
because voters they must assure
that their policies will endure.
And so elections produce much squawk
as opponents mock in their talk.
But although they're always a mess,
a win is a brush with success.
Mill, mill, mill, mill, mill--a million mills in my poem today. Sorry.
No need to apologize, Ms. Misty, not when they are so obviously a parody of an old-fashioned style.
I laughed my way through this one. It's a great way to get them out of your system!
You can always tell it is satire--either when you pour them on in abundance like this.
Or maybe when you offer a singleton as the climax, as in my Orca jingle to Sandy early yesterday...
~ OMK
Misty, don't worry about the "mills". Keith worries about them too much, methinks. :) Shakespeare gets away with it, but generally plays strive to be heard as natural language, not gussied up with circumlocutions. I think it tends to be a mark of much poetry. It's playing with the language, which is what poetry is about. let's see
Once, weak and weary in the middle of a dreary night, I pondered
Over many quaint and curious books of forgotten lore
Nearly napping, I nodded, when there suddenly was a gentle rapping.
I muttered, “Some visitor is tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more.”
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Owen! I just looked up Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven," and it has even more mills than my poem. I shall happily remember that in my future sessions!
The problem, OMK, is that I don't even quite realize that it's parody I'm producing when I write my morning poems. I'll have to see if I can do without it sometime--but only if the words as so simple that I have more room to maneuver.
As Owen points out, poetry offers a grand opportunity to play with language, and what I call "mills" are certainly one of many such opportunities.
But please note that his examples (and mine) are all rather "dated," from good Ol' Will to rhythmic Eager Edgar.
Nowadays unintended mills are merely a sign of poetry's old time love of artifice-turned-hackneyed.
~ OMK
Misty, you say you didn't realize what you were producing, but that's simply not so. Sure, when you were drafting your piece, the phrases just slipped out--automatically. But you were the first to blow the whistle on yourself, and that is well within the writing process.
Most composition takes place FIRST at a subconscious level. We often don't know what we're creating until we look it over two, three, or fifteen times!
In today's instance, you "owned" it when you pointed to it. And that's when I saw it as a parody.
~ OMK
So that we aren't just addressing technique, I think a note on your theme might be in order:
A word or two, Misty, in praise of your content.
May I welcome you for suspending love’s dream?
Please accept kudos for trying a new subject,
and for venturing bravely with a political theme.
Your Paul seems concerned that his election was stolen,
in itself a worrisome subject these days.
Distrust of our process raises doubt after doubt,
so I thank you for trying to cut through the maze.
I think Paul’s the one who wants to stick to issues,
or wonders if it’s the best way to campaign.
I hope he decides Yes, despite all the “squawk,”
Ad hominem “mockery” & such are a bane.
I can’t tell how he fares in his electoral count.
Your ending feels abrupt in that regard.
Either you prefer we finish the poem on our own
or let that cynical couplet leave him scarred.
~ OMK
Wilbur, Wilbur, Wilbur, Novak is losing!
I can't bear to watch.
[Aunt Nora wants to catch up on the last five years since she last saw Lois]
"Lois, my dear, it's been so long , it seems like forever and a day"
"Let me assure you, ma tante, though I had a rough patch, today I'm okay
Rather than scroll through the bad , though it was hardly a cakewalk
Things are rosy today thanks to my program I've nothing to squawk
About. Best of all my road to recovery led to my meeting dear Chet
Our paths bisected when I saw his face in a bar and I said 'I'll bet
He too can benefit if he'd accept rather than oppose
The principles that I've adopted and the path that I chose'.
For failure can be painted with any broad brush
But success is a picture requiring a precise stylus.
WC
BTW, Owen, May I squeeze in a word of praise for your opening effort today?
Ian the Wizard is a quaint soul, using his water magic for generous ends. We could certainly use him in California--Yea, the entire SW!-- these days.
Your rhythms, they are nicely rolling,
and so them I'm gladly extolling!
May I add that your own gentle use of a "mill" enhances the olden-days feel of the piece?
Thank you for your gift, good sir!
~ OMK
Wilbur, that's a lovely addendum to Lois' story.
I am just so bummed out by Djokovic's loss, no more to say.
Sandy, things were so lopsided I switched to Jameis Winston and The Saints. I told any ears that would listen that the young man was talented.
He's showing that I was right all along. Bill Bellichek should have grabbed him for the Patriots
Oops, just as I thought, a whitewash
Clearly the best man won. At least for today.
WC
OMK, I knew you couldn't resist the arms of erato. Said muse is alive and well for Owen who not only glides us along but finishes with one of his patented twists.
Misty, don't be hard on yourself. You had an idea and incorporated six disparate words and the riddle-solution about as well as could be expected.
And you didn't get too political. There are those not too far away that would go much further. As OMK hints at.
WC
And of all the games playing today (including MY Niners' squeaking defeat of That Team from Washerama), the one that seemed to me
The.
Biggest.
Game Changer...
was Misty!
Correct me if I am wrong, but in all the many months--years!--of these postings, I cannot remember her writing on a political subject.
For that matter, it is very hard to remember a Misty poem that did NOT deal with either love and/or marriage
-or-
a domestic friends or "homey" topic.
I think she deserves Congratulations for the stretch!
I shout, "WooHOO"!!
~ OMK
My goodness--this has to be one of the most intensely poetic days in our Jumble blog's (okay, not very long) history! And on a Sunday yet!
First, we were given the gift of Owen's fascinating Wizard-weather poem with its elegant language.
Then Ol' Man Keith checked in to let us know that he would be taking a well-deserved break today--and telling us this in two neat poetic lines.
Then I offered my verse, and "mill" apology, which was followed Owen's clever and fun gloss on Edgar Allan Poe's poem.
Ol'Man Keith then checks in with a few comments, followed by the most wonderful gift I have yet received on this blog: a detailed four stanza long poem in response to my own Paul poem that was a total and complete surprise and delight.
No one has ever written a poem about one of my poems--ever! And this is on a day when OMK really needed to take a break from his busy weekly schedule and instead gives me a lovely and long and detailed piece of work. Thank you, thank you, thank you for that, OMK.
But that's not the end. Soon after that we get Wilbur's gutsy Lois response to her Aunt Nora, again versed in her bright and bold poetic language.
What can I say. Makes me wonder if we shouldn't give our Jumble blog a poetic nick-name since we are largely, if not entirely, a poetry blog! Jungle blog days don't get any better than this--at least for me.
So I give you all my warmest thanks--including you, Sandy!
Have a great week coming up!
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